No Comment of the Chapter for this one.(Yes, I can do that)
Chapter Sixteen: Locked Out
I really have to give Holly a lot of credit. The dress she got me wasn’t all that bad. I mean, I actually liked it. It was a long-sleeved (to cover the color difference between my real skin and the fat suit), emerald green dress. It didn’t go too low down my back so I could hide my zipper and it was floor length, which was to be expected since it was formal after all.
The shoes were simply flat flats, which was awesome because I couldn’t walk in heels.
It made me feel kind of bad for leaving Holly there without a proper excuse, so I made Kurt go to the mall and get me a salted pretzel.
“Thank you, my favorite big brother,” I thanked Kurt as he handed me the pretzel.
“I’m your only brother.” He gave me an annoyed look. “Why do I have to pay for you being more social?” he whined childishly.
“Because this is all your fault. You’re the one who made me go shopping with Holly the first time around and caused me to like her,” I explained.
“But you’re happier, right?” Kurt did that weird thing with his eyebrows again.
I raised an eyebrow at his weird, eyebrow thing. “I guess so,” I agreed nonchalantly and shrugged.
Without warning, Kurt tackled me with a hug.
“Kurt, what are you doing?” I asked him, growing weary of hugs and then pushed him off of me.
“What does it look like? I’m giving you a hug. My sister is happpppyyyyy!”
“Kurt, are you drunk?”
“No! Why would I intoxicate myself with drugs that could eventually do permanent damage to my liver system? I mean, yeah, the liver regenerates and crap, but it’ll eventually fail and some people—”
“Yup, you’re drunk,” I deducted. Inside of becoming a mindless party animal when drunk, Kurt gets smart and babbles on about the liver system. But when I say ‘drunk’, Kurt is usually drunk off of Dr. Pepper, not daring enough to live on the illegal side of the law and drink under aged. It’ll be interesting to see what Kurt is like when real alcohol is in his system.
“Yeah, if you consider Dr. Pepper alcohol.”
I rolled my eyes at his childishness.
“I’m going to Holly’s house,” I told him, while he momentarily entered the state of soberness.
“My sister is beeeiinng sooooocial!” Kurt sang, acting like he was drunk once more.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, not sure how to handle a drunk person. “Call me if you break anything or if you do something stupid,” I reminded him as I backed out to the front door of my house. “And don’t drive under the influence! And come lock the door,” I called once I was out of the house, too lazy to get my keys from the house and then come back outside.
I began on my journey, trying to remember the route Buzz had taken me on. I stopped suddenly, having the urge that I was forgetting something.
I had the pretzel that I had promised Holly I would get for her yesterday, I had my pants on, I had my jacket, I had my phone in my front pocket, but I felt lighter and colder today than I usually do.
“Crap,” I said to myself when I realized I had left without my fat suit. “Crap, crap, shit, crap, shit,” I chanted to myself and fast walked back to my house. I really didn’t want to be caught and explained to yet another person my predicament.
“KURT!” I shouted as I rang our house doorbell incessantly and turned the knob again and again, hoping that it will somehow open after being locked. “OPEN THE DOOR!” I waited impatiently for my brother to get his drunk butt to the door. When I went over to the window to see what was keeping him, I couldn’t help but smile a bit.
He was singing, badly, to some Lady Gaga song or something while playing an air-guitar, which I thought wasn’t possible in a Lady Gaga song. I couldn’t really blame him . . . well, I blame him for turning the music too loud, but he was Dr. Pepper drunk.
Wanting to get inside as soon as possible, I knocked on the window to attract Kurt’s attention. But it didn’t work. Kurt was now doing the moon walk . . . on the dinner table.
There’s something wrong with Kurt. Something terribly wrong with him.
“Kurt,” I called weakly, now giving up my hope that he would actually look this way. I called him on my cell phone, but still there was no answer.
“YOU AND ME COULD WRITE A BAD ROMANCE!” Kurt sang loudly enough that I could hear, causing me to facepalm myself.
“I give up,” I said to no one in particular as I trudged down our driveway to the sidewalk.
Why couldn’t I have a normal brother who plays COD and just shouts at the screen and other players? I just had to have the brother that likes to sing to Lady Gaga, dance on the dinner table, and get drunk off of Dr. Pepper.
I shook my negative thinking away. Sure, my brother’s a little crazy, but who isn’t?
Trying to be positive about this whole situation, I turned my predicament into a spy game. All the way to Holly’s house, I ducked behind bushes and trees whenever I heard someone passing. And, to freak some lady out a bit, I started speaking in a low, spy voice, saying things like ‘Target is approaching’ and ‘Get ready for takedown’.
After successfully freaking her out, I managed to reach Holly’s house unseen and not get lost. I didn’t even pass by that stupid lamp more than once!
I rang the bell to Holly’s house and tested to see if the pretzel was still warm. Luckily, it was.
I frowned when no one came to the door. I sighed. I really hoped that Holly wasn’t rocking out to Lady Gaga.
“Hey, Davidson!”
I jumped a little at the greeting, but relaxed when I saw it was just Uranus. “Hay is for horses!” I shouted back.
“Holly went out to eat lunch with her parents. She’ll be out for two hours,” Uranus told me, totally ignoring my ‘hay is for horses’.
Are you kidding me? I walked all of this way for nothing?
“Shit . . .” I swore silently as I walked down Holly’s front porch.
“Missing something?”Uranus noted as I neared him, referring to the fact that I wasn’t wearing my fat suit.
“Aren’t we all?” I countered his question with a philosophical one.
“No, I already have Holly,” Uranus said smartly. “You on the other hand . . .”
I glared at him. “Are you objectifying your girlfriend? I said “something” and you responded with Holly.”
He looked dumbfounded for a moment at my somewhat loose logic. “But-but,” he stuttered. “Shut up,” he finally decided to end the conversation, returning my glare.
“I got locked outside of my house,” I explained, giving in.
“Idiot,” Uranus insulted me.
“Uranus.”
“What does my name have anything to do with this?”
“I figured that I didn’t have to insult you because your name is already punishment enough.”
“Ouch, that one hurt.” Uranus feigned hurt, putting his hand over his heart.
“Not as much as looking at your face.”
“Again with the ‘your face’ jokes? I thought you would have moved on by now.”
“Your face,” I muttered, not being able to think of a proper comeback.
“So, why are you here?” Uranus changed the subject and he gestured to Holly’s house, which we were both standing in front of now.
I waved the pretzel in front of him. “I owe her a pretzel from yesterday.”
“You came all this way for a pretzel?”
“Well, I felt bad for just leaving—” I abruptly cut myself off after realizing that I’m talking to one of the most nosy people I’ve ever met.
“Continue,” he urged me with a raised eyebrow.
“Just- just leaving Holly in the middle of shopping to go to the toy store with Sam,” I quickly covered, not wanting to mention Maria, fully aware that he would pry. “Well, I think I’ll come back in two hours when Holly gets home so that no one else will find out about the thingy,” I excused myself from his intense stare, like he was trying to figure out if I was lying or not, which I wasn’t exactly.
“Uh huh,” he said suspiciously.
“Where’s Sam?” I asked, trying to find a way to distract him.
“Hockey practice.”
“Wow, that’s odd. Such a sweet kid playing one of the most violent sports ever made,” I commented quickly while secretly taking steps back.
“Hey, Serena. Watch where you’re going. You might run over that bunny,” Uranus warned me suddenly.
I panicked and stopped when my foot touched something. I whipped around yelling, “I’m so sorry little bunny! I’m sorry! Are you o—” but as I looked around frantically I only saw a pebble, which was what I had actually kicked.
Uranus started cracking up, which was an odd noise coming from him. I’ve never heard him laugh. I’ve heard him scoff and sigh, but never laugh. It was a pleasant sound, I guess, but I’ve never really paid attention to people’s laughs before. Suddenly Sam’s words flew into my mind. I think that you make my brother happy too.
It warmed my heart knowing that I made Uranus’ life somewhat more pleasant after all he’s been through, but then I remembered that he had nearly given me a heart attack.
“It’s not funny!” I shouted angrily as I turned around to face him.
“You- you talk to animals!” he managed between laughs.
“Yeah! They have feelings too,” I murmured, not wanting to be ridiculed any further. “How would you like it if I kicked you and didn’t apologize?”
Uranus didn’t give me an answer as he slowly recovered from his laugh.
To emphasize my point, I kicked his shin- not too hard, but enough to make my point.
Immediately, Uranus changed from laughing heartily to muttering profanities and holding onto his shin.
“Didn’t like it now, did you?” I taunted him childishly.
“You’re annoying,” Uranus retorted bluntly as he straightened himself up.
“No,” I corrected him. “I’m just making sure we’re behaving like an object under constant velocity.” Uranus gave me a confused look. “You know, like balanced forces? A net force of zero?” I tried clarifying.
Then I realized how lame I was being. Did I just seriously use physics as a comeback? I should have just stuck with saying “your face”.
Instead of glaring at me after my usual comebacks, Uranus stared off at some spot behind me with a worried expression on his face.
“Umm, sorry?” I awkwardly apologized once I realized he wasn’t going to respond like he usually does. “I was studying earlier and I guess it stuck in my mind?” I wasn’t exactly sure why or what I was apologizing for, but I didn’t like it when Uranus is anything other than scoffing, glaring, or maybe even smiling.
Uranus blinked a few times before returning his gaze unto me, but he still kind of looked out of it.
“You’re panicking about the physics exam tomorrow, aren’t you?” I asked him softly as I recalled myself and him in the vents.
“I am going to fail,” he told me, suddenly looking very stressed. “If I fail, it’ll show on the semester report and I’ll never get into a good college, let alone Holly’s college and if I don’t get into Holly’s college . . .” Uranus trailed off, looking like he was about to die.
“Calm down,” I said uselessly, knowing how it felt when people said to calm down when I wasn’t calm.
“I can’t stay calm! If I don’t get into Holly’s college, I’ll eventually lose her to someone better than I am. Someone that will understand what you just said and someone who deserves her and someone who will be more attractive and-”
I stared at Uranus in horror as he kept listing traits for “Holly’s future, better boyfriend”. This is one of the situations that I have nightmares about. I’m horrible at comforting people my own age. Last time I comforted my brother, he literally wouldn’t come out for a week for anything. He ate ramen raw and drank bottled water he kept in his room in case of an “apocalypse”.
I started getting a little annoyed by Uranus’ nonstop listing. I mean, I thought he’d be a tiny bit more confident than this from the way he’s treated me.
“And they’ll probably end up living in a white house with perfect kids and-”
“Shut up!” I shouted harsher than I meant to, interrupting him. “Listen Uranus, you may not be the most perfect guy out there, but you’re you. You’re one of a kind, not like one of those idiots who go around with their little groups and act like complete morons. And I’m sure Holly knows this. Have you seen the way she looks at you? And besides, she only acts completely herself when you’re around. If you really don’t think that, then you’re stupid.”
It looked like Uranus was going to say something, but I had a headache from all of this talking.
“Stop,” I said sternly as he opened his mouth to say something. “If you think you’re going to fail, then go study some more. And for the love of God, stop bitching to me,” I finished whilst turning around to leave.
“Ser-”
“Go study!” I shouted back before he could say anything further.
“But-”
“Go study,” I repeated, growing weary of this bickering.
“But-”
I whipped around, bothered by his persistence. “I told you! GO STUD-”
“I NEED YOUR HELP!” Uranus now took a turn and interrupted me.
“Oh,” I said awkwardly, feeling bad for interrupting him.
Uranus avoided looking at my face, looking uncomfortable. “Will you help me study for physics?”
“Um, sure.” I responded just as uncomfortably.
“You will?” He asked looking dumbfounded with a shocked expression on his face. “Because if you’re shitting me, then I have-”
I rolled my eyes. The one time I try doing something nice for him and he thinks I’m “Shitting him”. “I don’t think that’s possible,” I cut him off, tired of his useless chatter. “Unless I somehow become a cannibal and eat you,” I added after thinking about it for a second.
“That sounded wrong,” Uranus commented, sounding for like himself as he walked up to his house.
I assumed he wanted me to follow, so I did. I never really studied his house before. It was a nice house- not too big or small. It was a dark brown color, accented by a lighter shade. In the front was a nice mini garden with an enormous tree at its center and flowers of many colors surrounding it.
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” I said hypocritically, because the same thought had gone into my head as the words left my mouth.
“It’s not. It’s looking at your face, which is way worse,” he retorted smugly as he unlocked the front door to his house.
“Oh, “your face” jokes. How original,” I mocked him for mocking the originality of my “your face” jokes.
Uranus didn’t reply, but scoffed at me instead as he walked into his house. See. Now that’s the Uranus I know.
The inside of his house wasn’t anything special. In fact, it looked kind of dark and ominous with its dark walls and hardwood floors. The walls were bare, making everything seem even darker. Besides the darkness, it seemed very homely with its furniture.
“It smells nice in here,” I stated, wanting to break the silence of the house as he led me to someplace.
“Yeah, my aunt likes our house to smell like pinecones right before the holidays,” Uranus thankfully answered.
As we headed around a corner, I finally saw a picture. It caught my eye almost immediately because it seemed out of place with its color and brightness against the dark walls.
The family inside the picture was obviously Uranus’. They were at Disneyland, taking a picture with Goofy, which explains why it was so bright. I smiled as I saw Sam, who looked so much younger. He had a giant smile on his face, still having his front teeth, and was gesturing to his Mickey Mouse ears.
Uranus looked different surprisingly. He was smiling at the camera as well. It was so different from his smile now, which looked duller compared to this smile. He was standing between a man and a woman, his arm around both their shoulders, and giving the woman bunny ears.
I assumed that the man and the woman were his parents since they looked so much alike him. They both had dark blonde hair and blue eyes.
Of course, the imposter Mickey Mouse had nothing on these people. It was like he was just standing there awkwardly outside a group of people that loved each other.
“Two months before they died,” Uranus said sadly from behind me.
“Sorry!” I quickly apologized, feeling as though I’ve intruded on his business. “I didn’t mean to stare. It just caught my eye.”
I turned around to face him, half expecting him to be pissed at me. But instead, he looked sort of serene as leaned against the wall and stared at the family picture behind me.
“It’s alright,” he forgave me as he continued to stare. “They were such amazing parents,” Uranus commented. “They had taken temporary part-time jobs just to take Sam and me on that trip.”
I stepped aside from the picture and leaned against the wall opposite him. I wasn’t going to interrupt him. He seemed so at peace talking about his parents.
“Tell me about them.” It wasn’t an order. I was just trying to get him to open up a little about his past life. Then maybe I could go easier on him with the insults . . . maybe.
I didn’t think he would actually tell me as he slumped down into a sitting position and stared at the wall behind me.
“My mom was a preschool teacher,” Uranus began. I slid down against the wall so that I was sitting as well. “She didn’t make much, but she told me she did it for the children.” Uranus smiled sadly probably at some inside joke he and his mother had. “My dad worked at IHOP because he couldn’t find any other job. They were both pretty strange people. I remember when I was ashamed of my dad driving me to school because my parents had painted our car to resemble a hot dog.
They were always there for me and Sam. My mom put a baby monitor in Sam’s and my shared room just in case we had a nightmare and needed comfort. My dad had a weird knack for Shakespearean quotes and my mom had her impersonations of Bill Cosby.”
Uranus paused, now looking at the floor.
“They sound like fantastic people,” I told him honestly, wanting him to continue.
“They were,” he agreed with me and sighed before going on. “Sometimes I think my parents were too good. One day they got a call from my relatives in Texas and it turned out that their farm was trashed while they were out of town. Everything was pretty much destroyed. So my parents wanted to help out. They packed their bags almost instantly after getting the call.”
I widened my eyes slightly as I realized how this was going to end. His parents’ death.
“My mother told me she would be back in a week as she dropped Sam and I at Aunt Sue’s house. I believed her.” Uranus let out a soft chuckled. “I can’t believe I believed her. But they went. A week went by and Aunt Sue had driven Sam and I to the airport to wait for them to come back. We waited, sitting for hours and hours, wondering when they would step out of the gates. We checked to see what was with the hold up. They people who worked there said the plane being held back by a storm.”
I could tell it was getting hard for Uranus to continue. He was breathing a lot harder and his expression had faded from serene to horrified. Heck, it was hard for me to listen to this, knowing the ending. I found myself holding my breath.
“So we waited. And waited. Eventually, Aunt Sue and I started to get worried. Sam still didn’t know anything, so we asked the airport people to turn on the news—just in case. They happily obliged and the three of us watched the news. Sam fell asleep during a commercial for Captain Crunch. My aunt and I didn’t think much of the news and assumed that everything was fine. But then it happened.”
Uranus suddenly stopped as if he didn’t want to continue telling his story.
I was about to tell him that he didn’t have to go on, but he started he cleared his throat and went on.
“I was about to fall asleep, right alongside with Sam, but the news suddenly rang an alarm, signaling that they had breaking news. I sat upright in my spot, making sure not to wake Sam. I remember the footage they had gotten of the shots. It was horrible. The crash site didn’t even look like a plane anymore. I remember me chanting to myself how that my parents somehow survived the crash. They couldn’t just be dead. But I was wrong. They read the list of bodies that they had found dead. I remember hearing my parents’ name. I remember the screeching and sobbing of those who were also waiting for their loved ones as well. I remember feeling numb. I remember the look in Aunt Sue’s eyes when she heard that her only sister had died. She began to cry while I sat there, still dumbstruck and in denial. Sam stirred in his sleep and I envied him. Five minutes later, the shock had finally faded and I was mad. I was so angry at the world for playing this way. I remember drawing blood from how hard I was clenching my fists. Then, as I sat there, I realized that they were actually dead.”
My breath got stuck in my throat. I didn’t like death. I hated hearing about it after my own mother’s death. I didn’t even like it before then. I could tell that I was on the verge of tears, but as I looked over Uranus, I tried my best to keep them in.
He was already crying. I could see the tears on his cheeks being reflected by the ceiling lights.
“No more hugs from my mother,” he choked. “No more baseball with my father. Nothing. They were gone and they took everything with them. And they still are gone.”
I felt so bad at that moment. Why did I have to bring up his parents? Why did I look at the picture? Why was I so stupid?
Before my mind could register what I was doing, I slid myself next to Uranus and reached out to grab his hand. Surprisingly, he didn’t slap it away, but he hung onto it.
“Life has a funny way of working, doesn’t it?” I whispered, trying my hardest to keep my own tears in. I was going to comfort Uranus, not have a cry-party with him.
I really didn’t expect him to reply, so I started to speak again. “Think about it this way. You have Sam. And your aunt. And Holly! You still have all of these people that love you. Heck, I may even care about you a bit. And I know that no one can replace a parent’s place in your heart, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t the fill rest of your heart with other people.”
Holy shit. I am crappy at this. Oh god, why did I even try to comfort him? I’m just going to end up making him feel worse.
“You’re really bad at this,” Uranus echoed my thoughts as he wiped his tears.
“Your face,” I replied immediately. It was a reflex- I swear! But, I guess it was a good sign that he was back to insulting me.
Uranus let out a small chuckle. “How original,” he retorted on cue and he stood up, taking me with him. “Thanks, Serena,” he genuinely thanked me.
“Umm, anytime?” I said awkwardly as I shook his hand and then let it go.
“I hope not. I can’t take anymore of your face.”
“Hey!” I objected. “”Your face” jokes belong to me.”
“But life has a funny way of working, right?” I twitched as Uranus mocked me in a shrill voice what I had just said earlier to try to comfort him.
“You owe me a pretzel from bawling all over this one,” I informed him matter-of-factly as I shoved the pretzel in his face.
He just rolled his eyes and took a huge chunk out of Holly’s pretzel. “It tastes fine to me,” he argued.
I gaped at what he just did and stared in despair at the missing chunk of the once beautiful pretzel. “This was my “I’m sorry” gift, Asshole!”
“Wow, you haven’t used that nickname in awhile, Davidson.”
“You suck,” I insulted him and slapped his arm.
“Hey, if the world didn’t suck, none of us would be here.”
“Now is not the time for physics jokes,” I snapped as I continued to glare at my disheveled pretzel. It was so beautiful. “I wasn’t even talking about the world sucking. I was talking about you sucking, stupid.”
“You’re just upset because you’ll never get the chance to.”
I was confused for a second before getting the meaning of his dirty sexual innuendo. My nose scrunched up in distaste. Even I didn’t tell as vulgar jokes as that.
“Hey, remember when you asked why you are always covered in food when I’m around?” I changed the subject quickly, partially because I wanted to get the last joke out of my head.
“Yeah,” he gave me a confused look. “You said because I deserved it.”
“Yes, yes you do deserve it,” I restated as I pulled the front of his collar towards me and crammed the eaten pretzel down his shirt.
Uranus started freaking out trying to find wear the pretzel went under his shirt and I began laughing like crazy.
“This isn’t funny!” Uranus shouted as he kept fishing for the piece of food. It somehow managed to migrate to his back.
“It is to me.”
“Get it out,” Uranus commanded sternly as he continued to struggle. “Now.”
“No, I don’t think I will.”
“Davidson!” he snapped at me whilst glaring daggers.
“Fine, fine,” I reluctantly agreed and stepped behind him, trying to get the pretzel out, but his jacket was in the way. “I’m just going to lift your shirt a little,” I warned him.
“Whatever. Just get it out.”
I lifted his jacket away and just as I lifted his shirt up a chirpy voice greeted us from around the corner. “Trent, I’m home! Is that Holly there—”
I stayed frozen as Uranus’ aunt stared at the scene before her, looking at my hand lifting up Uranus’ shirt. Oh God, this looks really bad.
“Did I um . . . interrupt something?” Aunt Sue looked between the both of us with a confused expression.
“No. No, you didn’t,” Trent answered curtly as he slapped away my hand.
“I could go back and get—”
Just then the pretzel decided to drop from Uranus’ shirt and land with a soft thump against the hardwood floors, causing Aunt Sue to stop mid sentence.
“Is that a pretzel?” she clarified, still looking confused.
“Yes,” Uranus and I answered at the same time.
“Um, okay then.” Aunt Sue cleared her throat, as if that would help her understand what was going on. “I’ll just leave you two to whatever you were doing then.” Aunt Sue scurried out of the hallway quickly, wanting nothing to do with us.
“So, you still want that physics tutoring?” I tried breaking the silence that had fallen among us, but I was fully aware of what he would say.
“Please get out of my house,” Uranus said, dreading the fact that he would have to explain the whole situation to his aunt. “And take your stupid pretzel with you.”
“Yeah, okay,” I agreed, not wanting to cause further damage to this household as I picked up the pretzel and made my way to the front door.
“Talk about a twisted ending,” I said to the pretzel as I walked down Uranus’ porch and down the driveway.
Hah, I’m way too punny.
:::x:::O:::x:::
Author's Note:
Hello my beautiful readers! Sorry for the wait. Again, school is a bitch. A HUGE one. I had to do a history project :( but I hope this length makes up for it.
Someone on my page asked me a wonderful question: What do I mean by "updating regularly"? Guys, to be honest, I don't know how my weeks are going to look ahead of time. But I'll probably be updating once a week unless I have an essay, project, or having sleep deprivation issues.
I hope I won't lose some of my fans because of this inconstancy. Speaking of which, I MADE IT TO 300+ fans! I love all of you :)
Anyways. THEY DIDN'T MAJORLY FIGHT IN THIS ONE! ...Gasp.
So, I think the time is good to ask:
Who do you want Serena to end up with?
Who you think she's going to end up with?
And I've always wondered:
Do you guys associate any of the characters the book as any celebrity? If so, who?